Grateful

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. There's always good food, good fellowship and good TV. This year, I made it to two dinners (Trista's family and my own), saw a lot of family and friends that I hadn't seen in several months, and watched a couple good basketball games, a couple good football games and on Friday, I watched a full-day marathon of Man vs. Wild on Discovery. Yeah, Bear!

I also had the opportunity to watch the movie Amazing Grace Friday evening. I had only heard about it because Chris Tomlin performed the song for the soundtrack. He did an excellent job on a classic tune, but the movie reminded me of some things I should be thankful for that I take for granted almost all the time.

I knew that I needed to blog about all that I had to be thankful for, but that is such a daunting task because I have been blessed so much by God's gracious hand. He's provided such a bountiful supply of everything that it's so hard to take it all in. And I should certainly be thankful for that. I guess it's like an actor accepting an award. He's got to thank people, and thank a lot of people, but doesn't want to leave any one out of his speech. But one thing I want to touch on really quickly is freedom.

The movie is about the British slave trade and William Wilberforce's quest to put a stop to it. It's a good movie and certainly worth a watch. But to be given a vivid account about how our fellow people were being treated not too much more than 100 years ago really made me take stock in my freedom. I treasure my freedom as an American. The freedom I have to vote for whom I want to serve, the freedom to pray whenever and wherever I want. The freedom to write this blog. The freedom to pick my career. It's an amazing gift. I've always believe, and I don't think I can be convinced otherwise, that America was created by God for a special purpose. As a nation, we've done a lot of good things for serving God. Of course, we've done some pretty lousy things, too. I'm not here to start talking politically because most of you already know where I stand (pretty conservative). But all I want to say is that the next time you drive down the street without being stopped by a military roadblock or the next time you watch Frank Caliendo do a dead-on impressive of our president, be thankful for the men and women who have sacrificed to give us the freedom and give thanks to God for allowing our nation to be.

There are two generations that I admire more than any other. One is the age of our founding fathers. Guys like George Washington, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin just to name a couple were so incredibly brilliant and forward thinking. These were men of wealth and prominence and they put their reputations and more so their lives on the line to have freedom. They understood the ramifications of their deeds and knew it would effect the world; not just the world they lived in, but the world we live in now.

I also admire the generation of World War II. That's not slighting the World War I folks, or the Spanish American veterans, but World War II was truly a battle between good and evil. As kids, they suffered through the Great Depression and as young adults, guys like me and Adam and Neil and Derek dropped everything to fly around the world and take a stand against evil. It was not only the soldiers, but the entire nation stopped what it was doing to support the war effort. I couldn't imagine that kind of support. I couldn't imagine that kind of bravery. I'm so thankful that those heroes, on all fronts, had the bravery to do it, though.

I feel awful that I take my freedoms for granted. I have several uncles that served in wars and I have the utmost respect for each of them. Someday, if I ever have son, I'm going to name him after an uncle that died during WWII. I'm not sure what I can do to show my full appreciation, but I think taking full advantage of every freedom I have is one way. One of those freedom's is praising God. And one of my favorite pieces of scripture is David's song of thanksgiving in 1 Chronicles 16. I've never been good at writing my own material, but God gave us the Bible so I could learn how to worship, and David provided a pretty good example of that. I'll close my thanksgiving blog with a suggestion to exercise your freedoms, give thanks to God for them, and pray that they are never taken away.

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!" (1 Chronicles 16:8-10).